In the biz, we call this post, In Appreciation. It’s like In Memoriam, but Jennifer Hudson isn’t singing a song and no one died. What did you just ask? Is your childhodd guinea pig alive again because I just said, ‘No one died?’ Doode, I’m saying no one died in general. No, that doesn’t mean General Tsao is alive again! Shut up! Yesterday, Javier Baez went 3-for-4, 2 runs, 2 RBIs with his 31st homer, hitting .295. That day? For this year? As the pimp told his lady of the night, ho-hum. But, five ladies and gentlemen, Javier Baez is your NL MVP if only Cubs fans vote! By the by, Baez has more 100 RBI seasons in his career than Bryce Harper. I will now drop a 140 WUT. How about we make every post the rest of the year about how much Bryce sucks? Worst 35-homer hitter in the history of baseball ever? Okay, that’s prolly Adam Dunn, but Bryce is real close for useless. When the Nats need a big hit, he Ks or walks. When the game is out of reach and no one is on? Harper’s you’re man. Okay, this is becoming about Harper instead of Baez. On the year, Baez has 31 HRs, 21 SBs, .295 and 90/100 on the runs/RBIs. On our Player Rater, he is teetering between 5th and 6th overall. For 2019, I’m having a hard time envisioning me ranking him any lower than 10th overall, and likely much closer to top five. Now, about that sucker Harper… Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Pedro Strop – 1 2/3 IP, 0 ER, and the win, ERA at 2.26, but injured his hamstring while running the bases, because, of course, he was running the bases. Why wouldn’t your closer be running the bases? You think Ed Gein just started making lampshades out of human faces? Nah, he had to make nightlights first. Believe that! I’d guess Steve Cishek is the replacement; Carl Edwards Jr. might also see looks, but he hasn’t been great recently.

Spencer Kieboom – 1-for-2 and his 2nd homer in the last three games, and 2nd in his career. He won’t be in this afternoon’s Buy column, because his name is Spencer Kieboom, but not Spencer KIEBOOM! How do you have the last name Kieboom and not go with all caps? Okay, not the reason he’s not in the Buy column, it’s because he’s a catcher and he sold his television rights to TNT.

Joe Ross – 5 IP, 2 ER, 6 baserunners, 0 Ks as he returned from Tommy John surgery. Ya know what’s unfortunate? Tommy John’s last name wasn’t elective. That would’ve changed the entire complexity of the elbow tendon surgery market. “Tommy Elective surgery? Again? Why not get a nose job like Jon Niese while you’re at it? I mean, I had some of the contours of my body adjusted by having my love handles frozen off, but these pitchers are ridiculous!” That’s you sitting on your high horse, which you’ve named SJP, for Sarah Jessica Pony. Any hoo! Ross returned in less time than Jimmy Nelson, who had shoulder surgery, in case you’re wondering about Sean Manaea. There’s a real chance I’m fairly gung ho, Michael Keaton, about Ross next year, then in 2020, he’s Patrick Corbin. For this year, a streamer.

Brett Anderson – 3 1/3 IP, 4 ER, ERA at 4.35 as he was activated from the DL. Can’t wait for the playoffs when the A’s win a nine-inning game using twelve pitchers.

Stephen Piscotty – 1-for-4 and his 24th homer. He’s not in this afternoon’s Buy column. Piscotty doesn’t know why, but he thinks it’s because Grey it’s sure if he’s owned in 50% or more of leagues.

Clay Buchholz – Scratched due to a stiff elbow. It’s puzzling to me that someone would say to the devil, “I will sell my soul for the best year of my career, but you can end our agreement two weeks before the season ends,” but here we are.

Nick Ahmed – 2-for-4, 1 run, 1 RBI. You would’ve been better off drafting Nick Ahmed with your 1st pick than Kris Bryant. I will now stick my head in a glove compartment to stifle my madman cackles.

A.J. Pollock – 1-for-4 and his 17th homer. He’s had an extremely frustrating 2nd half, and a subpar season — and he’s doing better than Kris Bryant too! Can you find the WTF in this: Kris BryanWTF?

Nolan Arenado – 2-for-5, 2 runs and his 34th homer, and 3rd this week. In my attic, I found the original liner notes for “Come Together,” explaining it is about Lennon and McCartney masturbating together. I will place this by my open window–NOOOOOO!!! Torenado!!!

Trevor Story – 2-for-4, 3 runs, 2 RBIs and his 33rd homer. I heard some ‘perts elsewhere asking Benintendi or Story for next year? Who you want first? Does anyone want Benintendi? Literally, anyone. Please comment below. You will not be ridiculed, I’d just like to hear why.

Austin Gomber – 3 IP, 7 ER, ERA at 3.78. What a breathing pile of horsecrap. My pitcher is such a THOT — That Horsecrap Over There. I guess I’m the frickin’ goober who started Gomber. *smacks head* Be better!

Manny Machado – 3-for-4, 2 runs, 3 RBIs and his 35th homer, and 10th homer on the Dodgers. All the Dodgers could’ve asked for. They didn’t know to ask for him to drive Dave Roberts to Rancho Cucamonga with no money and leave him there. “I left my wallet in El Segundo and I gotta manage the Dodgers, I gotta manage the Dodgers.” That’s Dave Roberts in my dream scenerio.

Jake Cave – 2-for-4, 2 RBIs and his 11th homer. If it was earlier in the year, I would’ve put a monocle on a cyclops for Cave to see what I could say about him. What’s to say about Cave now? Strikes out way too much, but does have some pop. Also, when he’s on deck, announcers should say, “Here comes Cave, stick drawing.”

Salvador Perez – 2-for-4, 2 RBIs and his 25th homer, hitting .235. He’s had a bit of an off season for him, which is to say he’s been about three times more valuable than Gary Sanchez.

Eduardo Rodriguez – 6 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 3.53. It was a long time ago, and there were some challenging moments along the way like Johnny Bananas being teamed with Tony Time, but Ed-Rod was a guy I liked in the preseason. I wouldn’t have held him through all his DL stints and mishegoss, but I do like him and will again next year. With that said (Grey’s turning the ship around!), his next matchup is not good.

J.D. Martinez – 2-for-4 and his 41st homer, hitting .330. Just Dong is about to be a Triple Crown guy, but does he win the MVP? I think he does. Do Betts and him split votes and Bregman wins? Kinda interested now that Austin Gomber has killed so many of my teams. I’ve dug myself a ditch mid-September here and it’s not looking good for your Fantasy Master Lothario. I need a prayer hexagon.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. – 2-for-5, 2 runs and his 8th homer, hitting .284. Won’t be in this afternoon’s Buy column, because Lourdes has done very little of anything of late, but maybe this is the start of something.

Nelson Cruz – 2-for-4, 2, runs, 3 RBIs and his 36th homer, and 2nd in as many games. You know The 40-year-old Virgin? Nelson Cruz is the 40 Home Run Robot. You can’t stop him from hitting 40 homers. Elon Musk programmed him that way.

Peter O’Brien – 2-for-6, 2 RBIs and his 1st homer, hitting .176. Know one thing for sure, the O in his name is not short for Out. Dude will never Peter Out. Peter O’Brien is less a prospect and more a baton one prospect writer on Razzball hands to the next. “Here ya go, man, here’s Peter O’Brien, treat him well, and don’t write about him too much, because I already have.” Is Peter O’Brien 45 years old and being played by Dennis Quaid yet?

Sandy Alcantara – 7 IP, 2 ER, 5 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 1.42. Fun fact! When Mattingly pulls Alcantara from the game, he yells, “Sandy hook!” and drops trou. Those readers in Jersey will get it. Things to love about Alcantara: he throws hard (easy mid-90s MPH). Things not to like: he gets no Ks and walks people. He’s a work in progress, but he’s only 23, so there’s time.

Kyle Barraclough – 1/3 IP, 2 ER, ERA at 4.41. Bearclaw is ironically named because he never puts up donuts.

Michael Conforto – 3-for-8 and his 25th homer, and, like, his 34th homer this week. He’s really screwing us for 2019. Everyone who went to play fantasy football in August is going to come back in March and be like, “Hey, Grey did you get more handsome during the offseason? And can you also answer if I should draft Conforto in the top 25 overall? Thanks!”

Steven Matz – 6 1/3 IP, 3 ER, 5 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 4.18. I’d use the Stream-o-Nator for him, but, on a side note, if the Mets didn’t have their worst month in franchise history in June and were .500 instead, they’d be above the Phils in the division. I know, if if’s and but’s were candy and nuts, we’d all be diabetic squirrels.

David Wright – Will be activated for the Mets’ final homestand. If only the Mets spent a third of the time on constructing a team as they did on orchestrating the left side of the infield reunion of Jose Reyes and David Wright. The Mets enjoy making their fans remember fonder times so much they should produce reunion shows for Lifetime. “Last time we saw Shannon on Snapped, she was dating a Mets fan, who kept complaining about her meatloaf whenever the Mets couldn’t score runs for deGrom, until Shannon called BS one day, drugged her boyfriend, and, while he slept, cut his Mookie Wilson tattoo off his arm. Today, we bring back Shannon and her ex-boyfriend with special guests David Wright and Jose Reyes, together again on the left side of our in-studio couch!”

a. But, but, but…you missed mentioning that O’Brien – Galloway B2B HRs were the 4th of the year for the Mehlins!!! The Yankees fans were like, 4th in the season? man, we had 4 in one game! Then Bautista called and said yeah but we scored 25 runs in a game and will still have a losing season, top that!

b. ‘Member (as early as March of this year…) when Kershaw was the best pitcher? He no longer is the best and is probably near top 10 but even that is for sentimental reasons. There are 10 pitchers right now who are better than him!!! I’m trying to coax him to pitch better if he’s reading this!

c. Prayer hexagon created. Focus (as you have told me a million times) on your hitting. You’ll push through on your hitting more than your pitching.

d. Mark Twain quote of the day for September 14

A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.

e. Have a nice weekend. May you out-score, -run, -power, -save, -steal and -finesse your opponents!

@Ante Galic: Ante always enjoy your insight and witty twib bits if you will. But I have a question for you, here it is. Come next March assuming everyone is healthy who are your top 5 pitchers off the board? Mine are
Scherzer
Kershaw
Degrom
Snell
Bauer
Nola
OK their is 6. The reason Sele isn’t on there is one beast from the AL east, home park sucks, and I’m still waiting for him to have that Dave Dravecky esque moment, you know the one

@Starz: thank you all. Sale is a BMFer. I read or heard a few scouts talking about his mechanics when he was coming up stating he was a train wreck waiting to happen. Sort of how scouts talked about Mark Prior, ever since my dumb ass has shied away. Crazy I tell you

H2H Yahoo league playoffs – only have three pitching starts left this week and my opponent has 6. Concerned about losing my lead in Ks, but I could still hold onto my leads in ERA and WHIP. WOuld you risk starting Lauer and Ian Kennedy tomorrow? SON likes both ($12.4, $11.3)

@FilthyRich: Do some calculations based on your weekly totals. How many IP and ERs? Individual ERA is meaningless in weekly matchups, so it’s all based on how much cushion you have. If you can add streamers to chase Ks, with large enough cushion if you give up a few ERs that wont hurt your ratios, then do it.
If your IP and ER totals are not far off from eachother, meaning less cushion, then you gotta be careful.

In a points league, semi finals next week. Im crushing this week even with stanton doing stone zero.

Conforto is a free agent. I dont have any room for bench hitters. Theres 2 weeks left and i need numbers, the team i play next week is a beast. Would you cut stanton for conforto at this point in redraft? Stantons at bats are hard to watch these days.

@Wally Pipp: stanton is 4 for his last 40, with zero home runs and 20 strikeouts, and strikeouts are negative points.

Jesus i didnt even realize it was this bad. Knew he was awful but hes in a 4 for 40 with 20 ks lol wow im just cutting him. Not letting this loser cost me a title. What a bad pick stanton was ugh. His slumps are epically bad.

@Christopher W Coriell: Sure you can, plenty do. There’s just a select few on my sh*tlist. When you come at the experts (not talking about me) like they’re idiots, but then want their help, you’re getting called on it.

Hey man. Wondering you thoughts on my final pickup for this very tight playoff week. I’m down 12-2 but close in about 7 categories so still alive. I also own the tiebreaker. I am down in strikeouts and down by one win, down in ERA and up in WHIP, and we both have same amount of pitchers left and I’m thinking of which SP to add with my last move. The options are not the greatest but wanna know who you think would be the best pickup and then i could use my judgment based on our score to see if I should start them.

The options are Nova @Mil, or one of Kennedy (KC – at home) or De Jong (Minnesota) who fave off against one another. Thanks as always man.

h2h playoffs. Semi finals. Right now I’m ahead in ERA and WHIP but behind in Ks and QS. I can bench my pitchers and just hope my hitters can outhit the opposition or I can pick up a few pitchers and hope for the best.
Would you touch Antonio Senzatela, Marco Gonzales or Adam Wainwright at this point in the season? I’m thinking if I pick up late Sunday starters Ill have a better scope of what my team needs to do and if it’s worth it. If you wouldn’t pick them up, how long would the pole be that you would need to be willing to touch them.
Thank!

@Jogon: Folty and neither lol @Tim: All depends on your weekly totals for ERs and IP. How much of a cushion do you have before losing the ratios? Maybe you can afford 5 or 6 ERs no problem. Or maybe not.
Is Junis, Quintana, or Castillo available?

I went with Senzatela who actually had a pretty good outing but it turns out the right answer would have been Nick Pivetta who had been screwing me as a streaming option all season. Also, it would have helped it I hadn’t accidentally picked up Meadows, completely forgetting that just because he’s NA doesn’t mean he doesn’t still count as one of my limited roster moves. Thanks for the insight guys.

Just wanted to say thanks for all your help throughout the season and how much I love the site! I use Razzball for both football and hockey and it keeps me always near the top of my league. Time to lock down my favourite of all the pools (baseball) and need your help with lineup decisions for next weeks H2H championship. I’ve ranked my guys in order of Hitteron’s next week values and included number of games each player plays:

Ha! I’m queuing up the AC/DC while reading your inevitable explosive post about the DC swamp receiver. Amazing! I predict he will go into special forces after a short MLB career and have a made-for-television movie produced highlighting his illustrious life.

In other news, I’m not much of a betting man, but is there a site out there where we can wager on Scioscia being replaced this offseason? I see an “executive” position in his near future.

@Dave D: Ha! One of my favorite under the radar moves this year was when the Angels leaked to the press Scioscia wouldn’t be back next year, they DFA’d Valbuena then Scioscia said he planned to return.

i have one move left for my playoffs this week.i need a quality start and ks
Estarda @ NYY
NIX against TX
Fullmer @ Clevinger
Lirano @ Clev
E Rameriz @ Ana
Yonny Chrisnos looks in line to pitch tonight and has had 2 solid outings but hes not starting so no QS Possibility

Man Streamonator really doesn’t like Jorge Lopez tonight against MIN (-15.4). With Miley’s start being pushed back to next week and limited transactions left for this week, I’m still considering starting him. I’m two QS’s up, even on K’s, and behind on ERA & WHIP. Normally I’d sit him but the streamers available the rest of the week look really bleak (Best left- Nix on Sunday).

I’m new to Streamonator so tough for me to guage a -15.4 and what that means. Any input?

been great all year Grey!
need K’s & wins in a roto league this weekend, who you got?
R.Lopez, Heaney, Velaquez, Gant, Chen, Bieber, Minor, Buehler?
those are just a few going, any others you may like not listed?
thanks!

A commenter above asked about him against OAK, but that’s his next star, and he’s hosting SEA tonight. At the time of this posting, SoN is on the Fritz with Shoe’s start (I know it was positive on it yesterday, but it looks like something went wrong the last time it ran . . . I get no dollar value or stat probabilities for him and Newsome).

Got myself a little conundrum with who to drop in my 10T H2H semi’s. How do we feel about Severino heading into the championship week next week? He’s home v. BOS on Wednesday however his spot could possibly be helpful this weekend for some spot starts to cement getting in. I also don’t want to drop an ace who has looked slightly better recently and pay for it with my opponent snagging em or some shenanigans like that. I could lose Trevor Williams instead but he has a start @MIL on Sunday which could help. Last option would be losing Betances. I am currently up 3-2 in saves and would still have Osuna, Vasquez. My opponent has Leclerc, Smith, Parker, Jeffress which is a crapshoot if they’ll give em saves. 6 pitching cats, standard 5 plus QS.

I’ve got 10 moves left and a bye in the first round of the playoffs. I’ve left Votto on the DL to save moves until I need him (and to see if someone else could go on the DL to replace him). I need to drop a pitcher to do this since all of my hitters are good. I’m thinking of dropping Glasnow but I also have Pivetta and Velasquez who are worth considering. I could also drop two and pick up Musgrove who the robot likes a lot for Monday.

Btw, funny note on Pete”Incaviglia” O’Brien. I believe I drafted him in 2015 in a NFBC league. That was before I stopped drafting any high hr/k guys. Its not worth losing BA to win HR.

I was doing a little research recently and found a good article with an interesting trivia question: who was the last player to at least 47 homers and strike out fewer times than he homered? He did it in consecutive years amazingly.

Yeah. Pretty awesome though. Unsung baseball hero. I think I have one of his BB cards somewhere. He didn’t have longevity at that levels but is also the only player to have four seasons with 35+ hrs and fewer strikeouts. He accomplished that in four consecutive years.

Well comes down to next week. I have 6 moves left. I’m ready to fire away! It’s a H2H cats, QS not W:
1. My current bats:
C Molina (whatever)
1 Freeman (
2 Rizzo
3 Machado
SS Gleyber T
OF Trout
OF Benintendi
OF Stanton
Ut E. Rosario
Ut Springer
Bench: Semien Bellinger
Do you see playing Conforto anywhere in this lineup next week (3 @ Phi 4 @ Was). If so, how is the drop and who is the bench.

What are the odds I can land Baez/Acuna in first two rounds next year? Would love to land Baez, Acuna, T Anderson, Snell in an NFBC….I can’t wait since I’m pulling an Oh fer in the 3 attempts this season.
In one of these, I took Machado/Jo Ram ..and Acuna in the 6th….yet I sit in 6th place. If you would have taken Nola/Cruz or Nola/K Davis instead of RobRay/Pham at 3/4, I would have likely had a shot. So this one is on me not the Lothario! (Well, they are ALL on me! Dizzam!)